Convertible apron



Feb. 24, 1953 c. GREENWALD CONVERTIBLE APRON Filed Feb. 25, 1949 INVENTOR. C HARLo'P'I'I-I GREENWALD AFTUHAEIV Patented Feb. 24, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in apparel garments, and, more particularly, the aim is to provide a novel and valuable garment, especially adapted for wear by little or older girls, and having garb components which may be variously arranged in every case for coaction to provide a full outer costume yet with the variable element or elements always functioning to constitute an auxiliary which is a decorative or useful part of the costume, which is a piece of attire conventionally supplemental to the costume, or which is an accessory naturally appropriate for use while the costume is being worn.

According to a now contemplated way of carrying out the invention, said costume incorporates, here also in addition to a bodice portion and a skirt portion, an apron element constituting a structure coadjuvant to the skirt portion when said apron element is employed as such, which apron element is of a kind such that substantially instantaneously it may be converted into another article of clothing for use as an auxiliary to the bodice portion.

According to still another now contemplated way of carrying out the invention, said costume incorporates, here too in addition to a bodice portion and a skirt portion, an apron element of a kind to constitute a structure coadjuvant to the skirt portion when said apron element is employed as such, with said apron element so made and arranged that substantially instantaneously it may be converted into an adjunct to the bodice portion which normally rearwardly may depend from the upper rear part of the bodice and then be rearrangeable when desired for use as a head covering hood.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of the objects and advantages thereof, reference will be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, and to the appended claims in which the various novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

Figs. 1 through 6 illustrate a now favored embodiment of the invention, as worn by a child, and constituting a costume wherein the apron element is convertible into the already mentioned hood; Fig. 1 being a frontal perspective view showing an apron element worn as such, Fig. 2 being a rear perspective view showing the costume modified by transformation of said apron element into a hood and attachment of the latter to the bodice portion, Fig. 3 being a fragmentary somewhat side elevational perspective view showing the parts as in Fig. 2, Fig. 4 being an enlarged plan View, with said element spread substantially fiat, Fig. 5 being a further enlarged detail sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 showing the manner of temporarily coupling portions of the apron element of Fig. 4 to convert the same into a hood, with the buttons on the exposed side of the overlapping portion omitted for clarity.

Figs, 4 and 6, it may be noted, are drawn to a scale slightly greater than thrice that of Figs. 1-3; in connection with which it may be further stated that the scale to which the hood of Figs. 1-3 is drawn is about one-third actual scale.

Referring now to the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, the bodice portion 25 is shown as having a gatherable neck structure served by an endless drawn-ribbon 27 The skirt portion 29 is shown as having a waistband structure carrying at its front three buttons 44; these for coacting with matchingly placed buttonholes carried by the apron element 32 at its top and along the line of attachment of a portion of the length of the apron element's belt 34*.

However, since the apron element 3? is designed so as to be transformable into a hood such as shown in Fig. 2, it is equipped with suitable means for making this possible.

Said means is illustrated as incorporating one set of three loops 45 and another balancingly placed set of three like loops 46; this group of loops as a whole symmetrically spaced along the bottom of the apron element 32 when arranged as an apron as in Fig. l. A similar number of buttons are suitably placed on the reverse side of the apron element not seen in Fig. 1. By interengaging these loops and buttons as indicated in Fig. 2, the body of the hood may be established.

For properly attaching the hood to the neck structure of the bodice portion 25*, said structure is shown as carrying a plurality of snap fasteners 41, these for mating with and being matchingly placed relative to a like plurality of snap fasteners 48 carried by the apron element 32 at suitable locations thereon. The ends of the belt 34 may be tied to form a bow at the neck front of the wearer as indicated at 3'!- in Fig. 3.

Referring finally to Figs. 4-6, the apron element 32 just above described, and as here shown, is marked 32 the same being desirably made according to a pattern such that at first the bottom extension thereof is rectilinear. Figs. 4-6 are primarily added to give an explanation of another manner in which elements corresponding to the loops 45 and 46, if present, may be employed in transforming the apron element into a hood; the principal'difference between these two apron elements being that the element ."-)2 is additionally provided with six sets of two buttons 50 each.

The two buttons of each such set, as shown best in Fig. 5, may be attached by a thread common to both, so that one of said buttons will be on one side of the apron element and the other on the other side thereof. Thus, while the buttons have a utilitarian function, they also will be decorative, regardless of which side of the apron is arranged as its outer side, when worn as an apron. As indicated also in Fig. 5, the apron element 32 is desirably inclusive of a plurality of plies; and these may be of different colors and/or patterns if patterned; and this feature, it may be added, may be incorporated in any of the described or other embodiments of the apron elements of the invention.

Also, a better understanding of the showing in Fig. 2 of the hood there shown will be had after the explanatory reference to the dot and dash lines 5| of Figs. 4 and 6 now to be made is noted. These lines represent approximately the lines over which portions of the apron element are folded to obtain the collared effect shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

When the apron element 32 is to be transformed into the hood of Fig. 6, the buttons 50 on one side of the vertical center of the apron are engaged with the loops 45 and the buttons of the other side of that vertical center are engaged with the loops 48, as shown in that view; or, if the outer facing of the hood is to be that facing which in Fig. 6 is the inner facing thereof, the buttons-and-loop s coupling will be such that it will be the loops 45 which are at the outside of the hood and the loops 46 which are at the inside of the hood. After engagement of the buttons and loops is completed, the side edge portions of the apron 32 are folded downward and outward along the lines 5| to form the collared effect.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiments of my invention, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to the precise constructions herein disclosed and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and, desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is;

1. An article of manufacture comprising a substantially rectangular piece of cloth material having its top edge gathered reducing its width at the top thereof, a belt secured intermediate of its ends to the top edge of said piece of cloth material, said belt having its ends projected beyond the vertical side edges of said piece of cloth material to be tied together behind ones Waist when said strip of cloth material is worn as an apron, sets of spaced loops secured to the bottom edge of said piece of cloth material on 010- posite sides of the vertical center of said piece of cloth material, and buttons secured to said piece of cloth material above each of said loops, so constructed and arranged that said piece of cloth material can be folded in half along its vertical center permitting saids'ets of loops on opposite sides of the fold line to be engaged with buttons on the other side of the fold line transforming said piece of cloth material into a hood to be worn on the head with said belt engaged about the neck and with the projecting ends of said belt tied into a bow beneath the chin.

2. An article of manufacture comprising a substantially rectangular piece of cloth material having its top edge gathered reducing its width at the top thereof, a belt secured intermediate of its ends to the top edge of said piece of cloth material, said belt having its ends projected beyond the vertical side edges of said piece of cloth material to be tied together behind ones waist when said strip of cloth material is worn as an apron, sets of spaced loops secured to the bottom edge of said piece of cloth material on opposite sides of the vertical center of said piece of cloth material, and buttons secured to said piece of cloth material above each of said loops, so constructed and arranged that said piece of cloth material can be folded in half along its vertical center permitting said sets of loops on opposite sides of the fold line to be engaged with buttons on the other side of the fold line transforming said piece of cloth material into a hood to be worn on the head with said belt engaged about the neck and with the projecting ends of said belt tied into a bow beneath the chin, and means for releasably securing the top edge of said piece of cloth material to an outer garment behind the neck of the wearer when the piece of clothmaterial is worn as a hood.

3. An article of manufacture comprising a substantially rectangular piece of cloth material having its top edge gathered reducing its width at the top thereof, a belt secured intermediate of its ends to the top edge of said piece or" cloth material, said belt having its ends projected beyond the vertical side edges of said piece of cloth material to be tied together behind ones waist when said strip of cloth material is worn as an apron, sets of spaced loops secured to the bottom edge of said piece of cloth material on opposite sides of the vertical center of said piece of cloth material, and buttons secured to said piece of cloth material above each of said loops, so constructed and arranged that said piece of cloth material can be folded in half along its vertical center permitting said sets of loops on opposite sides of the fold line to be engaged with buttons on the other side of the fold line transforming said piece of cloth material into a hood to be worn on the head with said belt engaged about the neck and with the projecting ends of said belt tied into a bow beneath the chin, and spaced fastener elements mounted on said piece of cloth material inward of said belt for engagement with complementary fastener elements mounted on an outer garment at the back of the wearers neck releasably securing said piece of cloth material to the outer garment when worn as a hood.

4. An article of manufacture comprising a substantially rectangular piece of cloth material having its top edge gathered reducing its width at the top thereof, a belt secured intermediate of'its ends to the top edge of said piece of cloth material, said belt having its ends projected beyond the vertical side edges of said piece of cloth material to be tied together behind ones waist when said strip of cloth material is worn as an apron, sets of spaced loops secured to the bottom edge of said piece of cloth material on opposite sides of the vertical center of said piece of cloth material, and buttons secured to said piece of 5 cloth material above each of said loops, so constructed and. arranged that said piece of cloth material can be folded in half along its vertical center permitting said sets of loops on opposite sides of the fold line to be engaged with buttons on the other side of the fold line transforming said piece of cloth material into a hood to be Worn on the head with said belt engaged about the neck and with the projecting ends of said belt tied into a bow beneath the chin, said buttons being provided in pairs for each of said loops with the buttons of each pair secured to the opposed faces of said piece of cloth material.

CHARLOTTE GREENWALD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

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